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A homeless ‘resort’ now faces pushback from Polk County officials Monivette Cordeiro
Sean Cononie is dozing off mid-sentence again. The founder of the COSAC Foundation, which offers services to homeless individuals, has gotten about two to three hours of sleep each night for weeks after moving to the outskirts of Haines City, a municipality in Polk County about 40 miles from Orlando. He makes an honest attempt each night to get some rest, but sooner or later his cellphone pings or someone wakes him up to handle an issue that has arisen for the homeless people who live at his Stay Plus Inn on U.S. Highway 27. The 51-year-old runs on cigarettes and Nestea iced teas as he deals with minor matters, like a disabled resident not charging his electric wheelchair, to major ones, like the relationship between his “homeless resort” and local officials. Toward the end of the day, he’s exhausted, but he wouldn’t change a thing. “At least 10 times a day my staff and I will look at each other in awe, thinking, why are we doing this?” he says. “This is where I’m supposed to be.” Cononie moved to Polk County in April, bringing with him 112 homeless people from Hollywood after the South Florida city paid him $4.8 million to leave town. It purchased the homeless shelter he was running there, much to the city’s consternation, and
then his residents told him Polk County Sheriff’s Ofbanned him from moving back for the next 30 years. Equal fice deputies were stopping them, asking them how parts abrasive and loving, Cononie did for many years what much they paid to Cononie from their incomes. other shelters in South Florida could not – like take in, some“Before we got here, they were already claiming we times for free, people who are too old or too poor, chronically were doing human trafficking,” he says. “I thought homeless, people with mental disabilities, those who have been that this being a very Christian county and Sheriff kicked out of other shelters or who have addiction problems. Grady Judd being a Christian, they would be a little The shelter he ran in Hollywood, Cononie says, was self-suffimore welcoming.” cient and used zero tax dollars. It paid its bills by having homeOn May 1, Cononie says a resident at the inn called less people sell Cononie’s newspaper, The Homeless Voice, on for an ambulance that arrived street corners. quickly, but when he called Hollywood wanted Cononie out ever a little while later for a since he converted a former nudist hotel Before we got here, they were one resident who was in his office into a homeless shelter in 2002, and the a hard time breathing, city unsuccessfully sued him in an effort already claiming we were doing having a Haines City ambulance arto shut the shelter down. He settled with rived and sat in his parking lot the city this year and bought the 125human trafficking room Stay Plus Inn, located in unincorfor more than 30 minutes. porated Polk County, because he liked Both Haines City’s City the facility and the $2 million price tag. Manager Jonathan Evans and He calls his hotel a “homeless resort” and provides low-income the city’s public safety director, Rick Sloan, say the housing, ranging from free to $24 per day, to his guests. ambulance was told by the county dispatching servicBut since he’s gotten here, there have been various issues with es not to enter the building. Carrie Eleazer Horstman, Polk County officials, issues that seemed to have started before spokeswoman for the Polk County Sheriff’s Office, he even arrived. said the ambulance was staged nearby in the parking Cononie says he was greeted with food baskets and invitalot for 37 minutes because they were waiting to be tions to lunch for the first couple of days after he arrived, but cleared to go in by dispatch. The call taker, she says,
Our Purpose: To Help the Homeless Learn How to Help Themselves
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The Homeless Voice Vol. 17 Issue 5 2015
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The COSAC Foundation was originally established in May 1997 to partner with other social service agencies, in the area, that provided help to the homeless population. COSAC also independently feeds the homeless or anyone in need of food. The COSAC Foundation opened it’s first homeless shelter in 1999 and named it COSAC Quarters (the shelter money was raised by spare change). We have grown into a multifaceted agency that feeds, shelters, and arranges for each homeless person to receive the necessary access to social and noncompulsory religious services to enable a return to a self-reliant lifestyle. And for the small percentage of people incapable of living independent lives, we provide a caring and supportive environment for their long-term residency. Our vision is to end discrimination against the homeless population and to develop such an effective network of services that we greatly reduce the time a person or family emerges out of homelessness back into self-reliance.
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A homeless ‘resort’ now faces pushback from Polk County officials (Continued from pg 1)
heard someone was causing a disturbance, creating a doesn’t need a license. AHCA press secretary Shelisha dangerous situation. Coleman says that providing one or more personalSince Cononie moved to the area, Sloan says there care services, such as the administration of medication have been 102 calls to the property, including 67 calls on a 24-hour basis, classifies Cononie’s hotel as an for service and 35 calls for emergency services. assisted living facility. In late July, the local newspaper, The Ledger, pubCononie says agency investigators told him, among lished a piece in which it reported that a former resiother things, that he could not give residents an aspident family of the homeless resort said Cononie was rin, change someone’s sheets if they urinate in bed or taking advantage of them by using their Social Secuallow residents to have their blood pressure checked. rity income and food stamps to pay for his services. He also says that by the same standards, homeless (This reporter used to work for Ledger Media Group, shelters that control their residents’ medication would which owns both The Ledger and the Winter Haven also be classified as assisted living facilities. News Chief.) Local homeless organizations like the “You start to question yourself,” Cononie says. “You Homeless Coalition of Polk County and Tri-County start asking yourself if you’re doing anything right Human Services told the paper they would not send when you’re getting this type of heat from everybody. people to Cononie until they figured out what he was ... I just want to do my job.” doing. Donald Whitehead, director of men’s services at the Cononie says it’s a common practice for shelters to Coalition for the Homeless of Central Florida, says he ask people to pay a program fee, and Jacque Henderhas known Cononie for almost 15 years. son, a director of Tri-County Human Services who “I think he’s one of the most caring advocates I’ve was quoted in the original story, says pretty much ever known,” he says. “The reason I say that is beevery shelter or assisted living facility in the county cause he’s willing to work with people who don’t fit collects some type of income from their clients. into the norm, people with more severe issues than Henderson and Dr. Tony Fusaro, executive direcyour general homeless population. He’s a person altor of the Talbot House Ministries in Lakeland, both ways willing to have compassion for those hardest to said the Polk County Sheriff’s Office told homeless serve.” organizations during a meeting that it was “investigatWhitehead also says the Department of Housing and ing” Cononie, though so far, no criminal charges have Urban Development has told homeless organizations been filed. Horstman says she can’t confirm or deny if across the county to focus on putting more people dithere’s an investigation into the inn. rectly into housing, rather than transitional services, which is The situation took a further turn on June 26, when exactly what Cononie is doing. someone filed an anonymous complaint with the “Polk County should be finding ways to assist Sean because Agency for Health Care Administration. he’s a valuable resource to the community and in the long run “During a follow-up visit at the unlicensed facility, will save them money,” he says. “It’s more of a not-in-mystate Department of Children and Families staff were backyard issue. People don’t want to take care of the homeless informed that untrained staff members of the Stay and would rather criminalize them.” Plus Motel/Homeless ShelCyndi Malvita likes to call the ter/Extended Living Facilhomeless resort a “hotel for hope,” ity were providing care for she says. at least four other residents Malvita, who also runs an orga“Cononie is a person always willing nization who were unable to take called Charlie’s Angel care of themselves,” the Outreach in Palm Beach County, to have compassion for those hardest works with Cononie day and night complaint says. “This care included: passing medicahelping residents with their issues. to serve.” tions, insulin injections, Last Monday, she was trying to get bathing, transfers, as well school supplies and backpacks for as management of meals, the 33 children who live at the inn. finances and health care.” The kids and their parents have AHCA sent Cononie a letter on Aug. 4 telling him bonded with the older residents, Cononie says, forming a tightthe agency determined he was operating an unliknit community in the short time they’ve lived together. “It’s censed assisted living facility and the penalties could so cute,” he says, “because you see the older people giving the include a $1,000 fine for each day he provides care kids advice, like ‘Don’t lay in that puddle because you could for residents, or a possible injunction to restrain get ringworm,’ or ‘Go inside, there’s a lightning storm.’” him. Cononie’s lawyer, John David, sent the agency Each room has two beds, a TV and a bathroom. It may not be a response stating that the guests retain and pay for much, but it represents dignity to many of the residents. Jeffrey their personal caretakers themselves, something that Cohen shares one of those rooms with John Gilbert. Both of
The new commercial kitchen them are disabled. Cohen says he got here in May and likes it so far, but now that the state has stepped in, both of them are at a standstill with their care. “I don’t want to go to a nursing home,” Cohen says. “I don’t want to go to an assisted living facility. I found this place, and everything was going positive, but now it’s negative.” At the peak of his frustration, Cononie puts out his cigarette and steps outside his office. A few feet away, the kids at the homeless resort have taken over the pool, swimming, playing and just being children. An ice cream truck pulls around the corner, and they scramble, wet feet slapping the pavement to reach the truck. Their parents and the other adults who are sitting on their porches come to the ice cream truck and get in line. One small boy looks at the line and whispers to Cononie, “But we don’t have any money for ice cream.” Cononie leads him to the truck and takes out his wallet. “Don’t worry,” he says. “I do.”
On Spirituality...what is it? Spirituality, one definition states spirituality is the idea of connecting with something bigger. Many regular folks and scholars alike believe that human beings are spiritual as well as physical and emotional. We were created by someone or something bigger than ourselves. Our ability to think, to contemplate mysteries and to love encourages us to consider all sorts of possibilities. For people of religion most of those big questions are answered with God. God is a part of human history and the record of that involvement
Demolition Day at 1203 Staff Writer It was a bitter sweet moment for former Director of 1203 N. Federal Highway, Sean Cononie. On Tuesday August 18th, demolition started on the Homeless Voice shelter. City Hall, the new owners, are hoping a developer buys up the parcel of land that’s in a stretch of “run down and undesirable” buildings. Down the road there are approximately $350 million dollars’ worth of projects underway. For the past 13 years under the direction of Sean Cononie, 1203 has operated as a homeless shelter serving three meals a day, offering outreach, disaster relief, and many other programs. Funding came through private donations and a portion of the sales of The Homeless Voice newspaper, sold by residents of the shelter. Many of whom had been with Cononie from the start and considered the shelter their home. Earlier this year, Cononie agreed to an offer from the City of Hollywood. Almost $5 million for 13 Hollywood properties among them the 1203 property, Cononies’ own private residence and multiple other properties with an agreement that he cannot own in Hollywood for the next 30 years. Shortly after the agreement Cononie found a new home for his residents in Haines City. The new facility has so far proven to be a good move for everyone involved. “We didn’t fit in this area. Although sad, it brings good things to the city I think. I don’t think it’s going to solve the homeless problem but I think it will invite other business,” said Cononie.
is the Holy Bible. Jesus in the New Testament and God and the prophets in the Old Testament. For Christians, we have Jesus as the God man who came to Earth to teach us about God the Father and Holy Spirit. Fortunately we have a guide. Not only a guide but the answers to all of life’s questions, or at least a written account of how to behave in nearly every situation. Living this kind of spiritual life is easy for most of us when connected to a church. Being connected to something bigger than ourselves. Prayer is the key to that connection, the way we hear Gods will for us is through prayer. Peace is the fruit of prayer. To all peace and good health.
Have you ever wondered what life would be like living on the street, asking for change so you could eat? Have you ever wore the same clothes cause you had nothing else to wear, have friends and family that just don’t care? Did you ever get stuck in the freezing cold rain, ever thought addiction be your only cure for pain? If not let God open up your heart and let not the homeless fade and depart. Mike Marino
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Deacon Bob
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The Homeless Voice Vol. 17 Issue 5 2015
people in apartments quickly. It’s become a model across the USA. Joggers trot along freshly paved paths, and sunOutreach workers in Houston identify homeless bathers stretch out on the manicured grass of individuals and make an assessment of their vulGeorgetown Waterfront Park in Washington. nerability, including how long they’ve been on the Nearby but oblivious to most, Janice lines up six streets and signs of mental illness. Using iPads garbage bags swollen with soiled blankets and and laptops, the workers tap into the network of clothes on a stretch of sidewalk where she sleeps more than 3,000 supportive housing apartments in each night. “I’m not homeless,” she says when the region to see which are available. Average wait asked how long she’s been living on the streets. time from assessment to move-in: 56 days. “I’m waiting for the movie star.” Like other homeIn the three years since the system launched, the less people interviewed for this article, Janice number of chronic homeless in the greater Housidentified herself only by first name. ton area has dropped from 1,791 in 2011 to 763 More than 124,000 – or one-fifth – of the 610,000 today – a 57% decrease. homeless people across the USA suffer from a The key has been getting the mentally ill homesevere mental illness, according to the U.S. Deless person housed as quickly as possible, says partment of Housing and Urban Development. Tory Gunsolley, president and chief executive of They’re gripped by schizophrenia, bipolar disorthe Houston Housing Authority. “Every time you der or severe depression — all manageable with have the homeless person in front of you, that’s the right medication and counseling but debilitatthe time to get stuff done,” he says. “Every time ing if left untreated. In the absence of such care, you let them go, they wind up back on the street.” their plight costs the federal government millions Farther west on I-10, officials in San Antonio creof dollars a year in housing and services and proated a system for housing the mentally ill that’s longs their disorders. being replicated throughout the country. HomeA few blocks away, David, 56, says he’s been less people picked up on the street are taken to sleeping on a park bench in Washington Circle the Restoration Center, a large building northwest Park for 22 years because he’s conducting a “longof downtown that offers medical treatment, psyterm socioeconomic study.” Miguel, 57, lives unchological analysis, sobriety wings and informader a nearby overpass because he claims his idention on apartments — all under one roof. Police tity was stolen by federal agents. are trained to bring homeless individuals showing Gunther Stern, executive director of the Georgesigns of mental instability directly to the center. town Ministry Center, greets them each by name, Besides getting more mentally ill homeless off asks them if police are harassing them or if they’re the street, the system has freed up police officers getting enough to eat. He’s seen the same faces from spending hours escorting a homeless person nearly every day for years. to an emergency room and kept the homeless out “It’s frustrating,” Stern says, briskly moving of jails. Over the past four years, the system has from one huddle of homeless people to the next. saved the city and county an average of $10 mil“You see the same people over and over again. It’s lion a year in emergency room and jail visits, acjust so hard to move people like this off the street.” cording to the Center for Health Care Services, a Each day, thousands of people with severe mennon-profit mental health system that services San tal illness, such as those Stern encounters on his Starting under President George W. Bush, the federal freshman at college in Southern California, Matt Sherter, where counselors diagnosed her with depression and permanent-supportive housing, which couples housing Antonio and Bexar County and oversees the netweekly outreach walks, wind up living on the government made permanent-supportive housing a naman discovered his father among the homeless living at post-traumatic stress disorder, found her an apartment and with counseling and access to meds. The initiatives are work. streets of cities and towns across America. tional priority. The number of beds has steadily climbed, the beach in Santa Monica. Greg stuck around for a few assigned her a caseworker. rapidly moving the mentally ill off the streets and saving “There are a lot of folks out there who think you HUD’s figure placing the homeless population from 188,636 in 2007 to 284,298 today, slightly more weeks, then promptly disappeared again. Today, Edwards lives in a one-bedroom apartment in Pasthe country tens of millions of dollars each year in homecan arrest the homeless issue away,” says San at 610,000 is lower than other estimates, which than half of which go to people with mental health Desperate to learn the whereabouts of their father, adena with her 8-year-old mixed-breed dog, Gunner. The less costs. Antonio Police Chief William McManus, who rerange as high as 3.5 million. The government’s disabilities, according to the National Alliance to End Matt Sherman and his sister, Anne, reached out to the paranoia and anxiety still creep in periodically, especially Because of a lack of federal financial and political comquires each police recruit to take a training course number represents a count done one time a year. Homelessness. Social Security Administration. A few months later, late at night, but the meds and a watchful caseworker help mitment, they’re not happening fast enough. on how to handle the homeless. “And you can’t.” The number of Americans who are homeless at More are needed, says Andrew Sperling, a housing and they received a form reply letter, informing them their her through it. She’s looking for a job. “It’s like bailing a leaking boat: As fast as we can get On a recent morning at the Restoration Center, some point during a year changes constantly as homelessness policy expert at the National Alliance on dad was dead. Greg Sherman had died of sepsis in 2006 “The system is broken, and they found a way to make it people into housing, we get more people coming in,” says people filled the welcome lobby, people move in and out of homeMental Illness. “Just a little more money while homeless in Washington. work,” Edwards says. “And it’s awesome.” Nan Roman, head of the National Alliwaiting to meet with a counselor lessness, sometimes for days at a will get the job done,” he says. Matt Sherman says it pains him to have Sam Tsemberis, executive director of ance to End Homelessness. “We clearly about getting treatment or seeking time, sometimes weeks or months. This year, President Obama requested a lost his father to a curable disease when Pathways to Housing, a New York-based know what to do. We’re just not doing As states eliminate a new apartment. Sam Lott flitIn a series of stories this year, $301 million housing budget increase that so many programs exist to get the menhousing group that works in cities across enough of it.” Stigma is deeply Many people are afraid ted between the visitors, shaking USA TODAY is exploring the hu- services for the mentally would create 37,000 more permanenttally ill off the street. The perception of the USA, says the ability to house people The number of mentally ill homeless embedded in American hands, calling some by name or man and financial costs the counill, many fall through to seek care, for fear that supportive housing units and potentially people with mental disorders on the street like Edwards comes not just from new surged in the 1970s and ‘80s as the sectry pays for not caring more for the wipe out chronic homelessness in Amer- others will learn of their needs to change, he says. housing strategies but from a fundamental society, and even written sitting down to carefully hear their ond half of the Baby Boom generation the cracks, landing in requests. nearly 10 million Americans batica, says Jennifer Ho, a HUD senior ad“Don’t be so quick to objectify them,” shift in how Americans view people with reached the age of onset for schizophreinto federal law. condition. Sam Lott spent two years hometling severe mental illnesses. The emergency rooms, jails, city nia, which typically begins when a perviser. That request stalled in Congress. Matt Sherman says. “That could be a very mental illness. streets or the morgue. less in San Antonio. He now mentally ill homeless are some of A more politically popular request for an dear family member you grew up with As a homeless specialist at New York’s son reaches their 20s, and psychiatric counsels other men as they enter the hardest to reach and toughest increase in supportive housing for milithat just lost their way.” Bellevue Hospital in the late 1980s, Tsemhospitals and group homes struggled the same recovery program that to treat, often self-medicating with tary veterans passed overwhelmingly and Dorothy Edwards knows the despair and beris witnessed firsthand the seemingly to keep up with demand, says Dennis turned his life around. drugs and alcohol and teetering becould eradicate veteran homelessness in the USA by paranoia that cripple the mentally ill from seeking help endless stream of mentally ill patients who visited the hosCulhane, a University of Pennsylvania researcher who has Lott, 50, runs the in-house recovery wing of tween lucidity and crippling despair. next year, she says. and finding an apartment. For eight years, Edwards, 56, pital’s emergency room before returning to the streets. He studied the issue for more than a decade. the Restoration Center. For three years, he was “There are so many people out there who are “We’ve got study after study showing that it actually wandered the streets of Pasadena, Calif., sleeping in albegan recording how patients with schizophrenia, given Having nowhere to go, many of those people hit the a homeless drug addict, drifting from Dallas to mentally ill that need to be treated,” says Deborah works,” Ho says. “We’ve debunked the myth that cerleys, scouring Dumpsters for scraps of food and smokproper housing and treatment, were able to hold jobs, manstreets. Fort Worth and finally to San Antonio. He slept in Zelinsky, 45, of Pacoima, Calif., who spent more tain people can’t be housed.” ing meth to fend off a crushing depression. Her teeth age their bills and cook their own meals, and he encourIn the early 1990s, homeless advocates began embracparks or wooded lots on San Antonio’s outskirts than two decades homeless before being diagBut the programs are not reaching those who need it were rotting, and sores broke out all her over body. She aged advocates to house first, treat later. ing the Housing First system, Culhane says. The clients and smoked meth to dull alternating bouts of anxinosed with bipolar disorder, getting treatment and most fast enough. was sexually assaulted repeatedly and had her belongSlowly, the rest of the country caught on. Tsemberis were assigned caseworkers who helped them navigate the ety and depression. He tried seeking help, but over finding an apartment. “On the streets, you don’t Greg Sherman had all the signs of a ings stolen multiple times. helped popularize the Housing First initiaprocess and made sure they kept up with and over again, his mental anguish prevailed, and have time to get treated. You are trying to survive.” normal life: raised in a middle-class When things got truly bleak, Edwards tive that led to permanent-supportive houstreatment. he returned to the streets. As they cycle between street corner, jail cell and family, graduated from law school, marwould check herself into the psych ward ing. In a landmark study released in 2002, CulA few years ago, after being arrested for assault hospital bed, the homeless who are mentally ill of a hospital, only to be back on the “We have misunderstood profoundly hane and two colleagues tracked the costs of States cut $5 billion from ried his college sweetheart, helped raise 40% of people with and spending three months in jail, Lott came to the cost local, state and federal agencies millions of streets within days. Various friends rav- severe mental illness, what it means to be mentally ill,” he says. 4,600 homeless people with mental illness mental health services two kids, on track to make partner at his Restoration Center, met with a counselor and was dollars a year. This fiscal year, the federal governlaw firm. aged emotionally by the homeless life “They’re capable of far more than we ever in New York City over nine years. Those from 2009 to 2012, along such as schizophrenia, diagnosed with Type I bipolar disorder. He was ment will spend $5 billion on programs for the As the kids grew into teenagers, somehad flung themselves off the Colorado imagined.” who remained on the street, shuffling in prescribed Prozac and found an apartment. He’s homeless. Next year, that figure is likely to grow with 10% of psychiatric received no treatment in been clean and sober for 14 months. to nearly $5.7 billion. hospital beds. the past year. He spends each day doing what he loves most: Heather Russell, 35, is one of a growing number thing in Sherman went awry. He became Street Bridge in Pasadena, known localOfficials in Houston and surrounding and out of jails and hospitals, cost the city helping others get off the street and trying to dispel of people dealing with mental illness and homedistant, staring at the wall for stretches ly as “suicide bridge.” She considered Harris County decided not to wait for and state $40,451 a year in services. Those myths about homeless people with mental disorlessness. Homeless since 2006, she recently found at a time or glaring at his family in what using the bridge herself, she says. more federal help. Faced with a growing placed in supportive housing cost $17,277 ders. housing and is off the streets. his son Matt calls “focused anger.” He be“It was looking pretty good to me,” Edchronic homeless population and diminishto house. Those given supportive housing “Deep down, that person doesn’t want to be Two strategies gaining favor in treating the gan drinking heavily, lost his job and got divorced. wards says. “I had run out of options.” ing federal aid, officials from the Houston Housing Autended to stay off the street. there,” Lott says. “There’s a lot more to them than homeless who are mentally ill are the “Housing “The way he acted, this just wasn’t Dad anymore,” Shortly after, she was approached by a worker from thority, Houston Police Department and other agencies “We have the solution; no one can say we don’t have the you see.” First” approach, which puts homeless individuals Matt Sherman says. Housing Works, a Los Angeles homeless outreach cenjoined forces in 2011 to create a computerized countywide solution,” Culhane says. “The problem remaining is figurinto housing first, then treats their ailments, and In 1999, Greg Sherman disappeared. One day, while a ter. The worker escorted Edwards to a processing cenhousing-first network that helps place chronic homeless ing out how we take this to scale.” Rick Jervis USA Today
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Mental disorders keep thousands of homeless on streets
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The Homeless Voice Vol. 17 Issue 5 2015
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Cottages for the chronically homeless take shape in South Dallas
By MELISSA REPKO mrepko@dallasnews.com The community straddles a well-known socioeconomic diOne of downtown Dallas’ newest neighborhoods vide between northern and southern Dallas. It’s within blocks will have a sweeping view of the skyline. Residents of a trendy brewery and a homeless shelter. will sign a lease that costs no money and never exThat contrast creates synergy, James said. “I hope this little pires — and will leave behind years or decades of neighborhood will inspire people to aspire to be housed and to homelessness in return. believe and see it can happen.” The Cottages at Hickory Crossing will kick off a Move-in will begin in late October. Each resident will live in new approach in Dallas County’s fight against chronic a 400-square-foot home with a compact kitchen, living room, homelessness. It will offer permanent housing before bedroom and bathroom. The houses will be decorated with colfocusing on hard-to-solve problems that led residents orful lamps, plush bedding and brand-new appliances. to the streets. The tiny village with 50 homes will take The community will have a retreat or camp-like feel. Janiaim at some of society’s most persistent challenges: tors will be called rangers. Each cluster of homes will become mental illness, addiction, poverty and isolation. a neighborhood with street names, front porches and a paved “To me, it’s a symbol of community and safety,” said foot path. Keith Ackerman, executive director of The Cottages A nearby building, called a lodge, will offer yoga, painting at Hickory Crossing. “This is a place where you can and computer classes. A nurse, a psychiatrist and an aroundnow be and live and hopefully be a contributor to sothe-clock concierge will work there. ciety once again.” Herbs and vegetables will grow in a community garden. The cottages were also motivated by finances. The Neighbors will be invited to regular town hall meetings and can $6.8 million housing project volunteer for a role, such as manager is expected to save Dallas of the garden. County taxpayers thousands Ackerman, 44, of Arlington, will act We had to say, this is your home as its cruise director and manager. He of dollars by offering shelter and medical care to the “fre- and we’re not going to take it away decided to become a social worker quent fliers” of emergency after growing up in Charleroi, Pa., a from you... rooms, hospitals and the jail. small town near Pittsburgh that relied Each person who will on steel mills and a glass factory for move into a cottage costs steady jobs and a strong economy. the county more than $40,000 in services per year, His father, an Episcopal minister, led a local church. When said Larry James, chief executive of Dallas nonprofit the steel mill across the river closed and the glass factory laid CitySquare. With a permanent home and a support people off, rates of alcoholism, depression and suicide spiked. system, she should cost the county less than $15,000. Churchgoers knocked on his family’s door late into the night. “In this case, doing the right thing is also the best Ackerman, the oldest of three children, would sometimes be thing,” he said. shaken awake by his father to make sandwiches for visitors. James said the houses are part of the therapy. As an adult, he’s worked with people in halfway houses, “I always say, ‘If I can’t hang a picture on the wall, home arrest programs and a psychiatric hospital. I’m not home,’” he said. “And home is what people “There is always so much more to the individual and the story need.” than you see in the first impression,” he said. The Cottages at Hickory Crossing project has been Staff will track down potential residents for the cottages at years in the making. Local nonprofits raised millions homeless shelters, on park benches, beneath overpasses and in of dollars and found about 3.5 acres of land near Malmakeshift camps on the fringes of the Trinity Forest. They will colm X Boulevard and Louise Avenue. The vacant whittle down a list of about 300 individuals to the 50 most South Dallas lot was covered with overgrown shrubs, vulnerable — men and women who have “burned every bridge abandoned concrete slabs and an occasional tent. that they’ve got in their life,” Ackerman said. Small homes of wood and steel have risen there. Across the country, other cities, states and nonprofits have They’re across the street from CitySquare’s Opportuadopted a similar “Housing First” approach. In Utah, state ofnity Center, a building that offers food, reading classficials have nearly ended chronic homelessness. The state has es and employment training. They’re also across from dramatically cut costs by offering permanent housing instead a boarded-up house with a “No Trespassing” sign and of draining public resources through repeated jail stays and ura gas station. gent hospital visits.
There are similar developments in Los Angeles, Seattle and New York City. In New York City, dozens of chronically homeless people have moved into apartment buildings run by Common Ground, a New York City-based nonprofit. Brenda Rosen, president of Common Ground, said the move into a stable home can be disconcerting after life on the streets. Some people didn’t know how to drain the shower or use the toaster. Others felt so unsettled, they spent nights with the door open. They slept on the floor instead of the bed. Several residents became hoarders and weren’t able to throw away what most would consider garbage, she said. One man disappeared when his microwave stopped working. He thought he would be kicked out, so he ran away, she said. Apartment staff and police officers searched for him and coaxed him to return. “We had to say, this is your home and we’re not going to take it away from you,” she said. It took about a year for people to adjust. It took about two years for life in the building to fall into a quieter, calmer rhythm, she said. In Dallas, Ackerman also expects the cottages’ residents to experience culture shock. They may sleep for days. They may feel guilty for leaving behind homeless friends. They may break the rules and need second and third chances. But Ackerman said he won’t be discouraged, “because I know that the end of their story hasn’t been written yet.” The Cottages at Hickory Crossing will offer permanent homes to people before its staff helps with underlying issues, such as substance abuse and mental illness. The approach is called “Housing First.” Across the country, cities have built houses and apartment complexes that use the same strategy. Instead of requiring individuals to get sober or go through treatment first, the Housing First model moves them off the streets and into stable housing. Housing First gained popularity after Sam Tsemberis, a psychiatry faculty member at New York University School of Medicine, founded Pathways to Housing in 1992. He started the nonprofit based on the belief that housing is a basic right and that homeless people would fare better if they lived in a stable environment with treatment and services. Tsemberis showed the approach could save money in the long run by addressing people’s health needs and limiting their use of public resources, such as emergency rooms, police and jails.
Count of homeless vets in Orlando finds dozens in jail Caroline Rowland News 13
An initiative to house homeless veterans kicked off with a surge to find them and a surprise of where many were living. A huge portion of them, almost 50, were found in the Orange County Jail. Jim Perrine has been living on the streets of Orlando for three years. “I served your country. I’m a Vietnam Veteran,” said Perrine. Perrine doesn’t have a home and sleeps sometimes behind a gas station where an owner allows him or sometimes in any grassy area. Where he sleeps has gotten him arrested seven times in the past 16 months for camping, having an open container and trespassing, all misdemeanor crimes. Perrine is one of the many homeless vets who get caught in the cycle where just living on the streets and struggling to survive becomes a crime. “Sometimes they owe $20,000, $40,000, for repeatedly asking for a dollar, and then they can’t get into housing cause they have the writs and they can’t get a job because they are scared they are going to get picked up, kind of just an endless cycle,” said Faith Sills from the Orange County Public Defenders’ office. Sills participated in the surge and interviewed almost 50 veterans in the Orange county jail. She says there are still more to count.
“It’s awful, but it’s almost convenient that they are “The direction we hope to continue on is getting arrested for being homeless cause at least we to stop criminalizing the homeless, and start incentivizing housing, get a chance to talk to them, instead of having to wonder where as an intervention and they are hiding out in the woods Just living on the streets a transformational next step for those in need,” all the time,” said Sills. Through the Rethink Homeless- and struggling to survive said Andrae Bailey, ness initiative run by the Central CEO of Commission on becomes a crime. Florida Commission on HomeHomelessness. lessness, homeless veterans with For Perrine it’s a shot at criminal records will get a chance they’ve never had a new life, one he may have not been afforded before: housing first and then treatment. before.
Tampa News Meters collect $225 a month for St. Pete’s homeless Kristen Mitchell Tribune Staff
Ten months after launching a donation program to discourage people from giving money directly to panhandlers, the city has collected about $2,000 in spare change. City officials launched the Power of Change program in October, placing 12 parking meters painted yellow throughout downtown. Instead of giving money to panhandlers, pedestrians are encouraged to feed the meters knowing the money will go to the city’s street outreach team. “Just about everybody that works with the homeless knows that panhandling is not good for anybody,” said Cliff Smith, who oversees the city’s veteran, social and homeless services. Smith said the meters, painted a bright color so no one thinks they’re for parking, are taking in about $225 a month in total. “That’s a lot of quarters, nickels, dimes, whatever,” he said. The meters have generated $1,854 as of the end of July. The city’s street outreach team consists of a St. Petersburg police officer and a social worker from Operation PAR, an organization offering drug addiction and mental health services. The team uses the money for things like formula and diapers, hotel rooms for people who need shelter, and the family reunification program, where homeless people are given bus tickets to rejoin family members who agree to house them anywhere else in the country. What the meters haven’t done is stop people from panhandling downtown, Smith said. “It’s still happening, but at least were getting the word out to people,” he said. Officer Richard Linkiewicz, who has been working with the homeless for nine years, said 30 to 40 people are sleeping on the streets of downtown St. Petersburg each night. The homeless count for Pinellas County in 2014 was 5,748, 43 percent of them children, according to county data. The donations are taken by the same transportation employees who collect coins from parking meters. They make collections from the yellow meters twice a month and keep track of collections to determine which meters are most productive. The meters getting the most coins are on the waterfront in North Straub Park and near the Museum of Fine Arts, Smith said. He wants
to move the meter near the Al Lang Stadium parking lot, which doesn’t take in much. “I guess they just walk right by it, they don’t see it,” he said. Smith plans to ask the city for more meters, particularly on Central Avenue, with its growing number of shops and restaurants. Dianne Clarke, chief operating officer at Operation PAR, said the city allocates $1,000 a month for the outreach team on top the collections from the meter team. The $225 a month or so can pay for extra nights in a hotel — a bridge between living on the streets and more permanent housing for some of the city’s homeless. Still, 10 months later, many people still aren’t aware the program exists, Clarke said. “The more we can get the word out about it, the better,” she said. “The meters are a good alternative to giving to panhandlers because people know where their money is going. “You want to be compassionate, and when somebody is right in front of you ... it’s hard.”
The Homeless Voice Vol. 17 Issue 5 2015
Orlando News
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The Homeless Voice Vol. 17 Issue 5 2015
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Insurance Benefits that prevents Homelessness! George Preacher
After 30 years as an insurance agent, I am writing this article to share with you that I believe insurance products such as Critical Illness, Accident, Hospital, and Cancer Indemnity plans are more valuable than Health Insurance. Health Insurance is necessary but consider the following: You're in a movie theatre and notice that your hospital administrator and your doctor are sitting in front of you with their families. Suddenly gunshots ring out and you jump up and take the administrator and his family to safety. You then return and take your doctor and his family to safety. Finally you come back for your family. REALLY? Could you survive the catastrophic costs of a major illness? Even if you survive-could your finances survive? Fifty percent of all bankruptcies & home foreclosures are caused by such medical expenses, when 80% of them had health insurance. Ask yourself this question? If faced with a critical illness-What are the most important monthly bills to pay? Would you and your family need help with the Mortgage, Out-of-Pocket medical expenses, car, food, electric, H20, etc...? Or how about actually trying to pay your Health Insurance Premiums? This would definitely not be a good time to lapse that policy! Supplemental policies pay cash directly to you, to be used anyway you choose. You can buy policies with $5,000 to $50,000 or more in benefits. Wouldn't you rather get a check instead of a get well card? Make sure you and YOUR FAMILY get PAID first. Contact me, , Certified Medical Insurance Consultant at 954-880-2240 for more information!
The Homeless Voice is looking for a group of volunteers to gather donations in our name. You can put teams together and raise funds or products for the shelter. We need a team to get together and make plans to search for products. We need one person to contact hotels to get sheets, blankets, bed spreads and LED light bulbs.
www.homelessvoice.org/volunteer
If interested Please contact 954-924-3571
Each day at 3pm, say this prayer
Emily Badger
We all need sleep, which is a fact of life but also a legally important point. Last week, the Department of Justice argued as much in a statement of interest it filed in a relatively obscure case in Boise, Idaho, that could impact how cities regulate and punish homelessness. Boise, like many cities — the number of which has swelled since the recession — has an ordinance banning sleeping or camping in public places. But such laws, the DOJ says, effectively criminalize homelessness itself in situations where people simply have nowhere else to sleep. From the DOJ’s filing: When adequate shelter space exists, individuals have a choice about whether or not to sleep in public. However, when adequate shelter space does not exist, there is no meaningful distinction between the status of being homeless and the conduct of sleeping in public. Sleeping is a life-sustaining activity — i.e., it must occur at some time in some place. If a person literally has nowhere else to go, then enforcement of the anticamping ordinance against that person criminalizes her for being homeless. Such laws, the DOJ argues, violate the Eighth Amendment protections against cruel and unusual punishment, making them unconstitutional. By weighing in on this case, the DOJ’s first foray in two decades into this still-unsettled area of law, the federal government is warning cities far beyond Boise and backing up federal goals to treat homelessness more humanely. “It’s huge,” says Eric Tars, a senior attorney for the
National Law Center on Homelessness & Poverty, which origiwith it — than to invest in “housing first” solutions nally filed the lawsuit against Boise, alongside Idaho Legal Aid that have worked in many parts of the country. Services. Criminal citations also compound the problem of According to a NLCHP report last year that surveyed 187 cithomelessness, making it harder for people to qualify ies between 2011 and 2014, 34 percent had citywide laws banfor jobs or housing in the future. ning camping in public. Another 43 percent prohibited sleep“You have to check those [criminal] boxes on the ing in vehicles, and 53 percent banned sitting or lying down application forms,” Tars says. “And they don’t say in certain public places. All of these laws criminalize the kind ‘were you arrested because you were trying to simply of activities — sitting, resting, sleeping — that are arguably survive on the streets?’ They say ‘if you have an arrest fundamental to human existence. record, we’re not going to rent to you.’” And they’ve criminalized that behavior in an environment NLCHP’s goal, Tars says, isn’t to protect the rights where most cities have far more homeless than shelter beds. of people to live on the street, but to prevent and end In 2014, the federal government estimates, there were about homelessness. That means adding a lot more shelter 153,000 unsheltered homeless on the street in beds and housing options in places the U.S. on any given night. like Boise — which has three shelLaws like these have grown more common run by two nonprofits — so Homelessness never left ters as that math has actually grown worse since people have options other than the town because somebody street. the recession. “Homelessness is just becoming more visThe DOJ’s argument is based on gave it a ticket ible in communities, and when homelessness the logic in an earlier Ninth Circuit becomes more visible, there’s more pressure decision, striking down a vagrancy on community leaders to do something about law in Los Angeles that was ultiit,” Tars says. “And rather than actually examining what’s the mately vacated in a settlement. That logic specifically best thing to do about homelessness, the knee-jerk response — says it’s unconstitutional to punish people for sleeping as with so many other things in society — is ‘we’ll address this outside if there aren’t enough beds for them to sleep social issue with the criminal justice system.’” indoors. If there are, the constitutional question would It’s also easier, he adds, for elected officials to argue for crimbe different, although the moral and policy implicainal penalties when the public costs of that policy are much tions may remain the same. harder to see than the costs of investing in shelters or services “Homelessness never left town because somebody for the poor. Ultimately, though, advocates and the federal govgave it a ticket,” Tars says. “The only way to end ernment have argued, it’s much more expensive to ticket the homelessness is to make sure everybody has access to homeless — with the court, prison and health costs associated affordable, decent housing.”
Libraries on the front lines of the homelessness crisis in the United States Richard Gunderman And David C Stevens, The Conversation
have been diagnosed with a mental illness, such as bipoLibraries are increasingly a sanctuary for people lar disorder, schizophrenia, who are homeless or mentally ill. We wondered how depression, or substance delibraries function on the front lines of social service pendence. Tragically, many provision. are experiencing both. On any given night in 2014, over half a million peoThey come to the library ple in the United States found themselves without a for all sorts of reasons: to home. While the majority of these people (69%) seseek warmth and shelter, to cured shelter for the night, many shelters do not prouse the restroom, to access vide daytime accommodations for their patrons. This the internet, to meet friends, leaves many in search of daytime activity and protecand yes, even to read books tion from the elements. and newspapers. One librarUnfortunately, many homeless are also living with ian estimates that about half debilitating mental illnesses. The intimate relationof the library’s regular paship between homelessness and mental illness is welltrons are either mentally ill established. Almost all psychiatric conditions are or homeless. overrepresented in homeless populations. The library’s long-term emThe transition from inpatient to outpatient psychiatployees report that the menric treatment that began in the 1960s, including the tally ill were not always such closure of state-run psychiatric hospitals, may cona prominent component of tribute to the prevalence of mental illness among the its clientele. Their presence homeless. Today, adjusting for changes in population increased dramatically 20 years ago, with the closure of a local size, US state mental hospitals house only about 10% mental hospital. the number of patients they once did. Helping homeless and mentally ill clients is a challenge that So it is no surprise that libraries are coping with a libraries all over the country are grappling with, but library scilarge number of patrons who are homeless or have ence curricula don’t seem to have caught up. mental illnesses. Public libraries are, after all, deAccording to one newly minted librarian who received her signed to be welcoming spaces for all. master’s degree in library science a few This can leave libraries struggling years ago, contemporary library education with how to serve a population with Helping homeless and typically includes no coursework in menvery diverse needs. This is an issue we know that limentally ill clients is a tal illness. It focuses on the techniques and of library services, especially brarians at a metropolitan public lichallenge that libraries technology meeting the needs of patrons for access to brary we visited are grappling with. all over the country are information. We became aware of this issue in Learning strategies to assist mentally ill speaking informally with librarians grappling with and homeless patrons might not be on library who work there. To our surprise, curricula, but the American Library Associawe learned that the library serves a tion has long had policies in place emphasizing equal access to large number of homeless and mentally ill patrons. library services for the poor, and in 1996 formed the Hunger, The librarians told us about some of these patrons. Homelessness, and Poverty Task Force. There is Big Bob, a large man in his 40’s who freAcross the country, libraries have developed helpful stratequently regales the librarians with accounts of his gies for serving homeless and mentally ill patrons. One, at least exploits as a member of special ops forces in the milfor large libraries with sufficient numbers of personnel, is to itary. There is John, a reclusive man always attired designate a member of the staff as a specialist in these matters, in combat fatigues and heavy-duty army boots who who serves as a resource person for other employees. turned out, in the bitterest cold of winter, to be sufferAt the metropolitan library we visited, one of the more civiing from severe frostbite. And there is Jane, a young cally oriented librarians acts as a liaison between various local woman who, when it emerged that she was temporarmental health agencies and homeless shelters. She has cultiily living in her car, turned the tables on the librarians vated a relationship with a mental health crisis clinician at the by saying, “Shh,” so no one else would learn of her county hospital, who has organized workshops to educate the plight. library staff about mental health and substance abuse. Some of these library patrons are homeless. Others
This librarian’s work with homeless and mentally ill library patrons is currently supported by the library’s budget, but much of her progress was driven by her personal commitment. As she looks toward retirement, she worries that these services will fade when she leaves. However, there are signs that libraries are embracing their role as a safety net. Libraries in San Francisco, Washington DC and Philadelphia are hiring social workers to assist with the needs of homeless and mentally ill patrons. Others in Queens, New York and Denver, Colorado have outreach programs that bring training services to homeless shelters and educate residents about library services. The Denver program even provides the bus fare to visit the library. The librarians we talked to take their role as surrogate mental health workers in stride, and many regard their mentally ill patrons with a sense of mission. Said one librarian who has worked at the downtown library for more than 30 years: The library often serves as a destination for people who have no place to go. They can always come here, to be warm, safe, and entertained. At first, I didn’t know how important the library is to them, but one day before a holiday, a patron came up to me and said, ‘You guys will really be missed tomorrow.’ Some may resent the presence of the mentally ill in the library, but as far as I am concerned, everyone deserves a chance to use it.
The Homeless Voice Vol. 17 Issue 5 2015
It’s Unconstitutional to Ban the Homeless from Sleeping Outside
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